• Question: Did going to university dim your passion for science? (With university being renowned for being extremely written based)

    Asked by anon-196630 to Sebastian, Paddy, Lee, Jennifer, Fiona, Eleanor on 11 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sebastian Cosgrove

      Sebastian Cosgrove answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      Definitely not. Despite a lot of the written work that came with it, doing a chemistry degree meant I spent at least one full day a week in labs doing experiments! Then instead of spending my 3rd year at University, I spent it in industry working on real life chemistry problems in an industrial lab. This gave me more passion to pursue science as a career, as seeing it being applied on large scale, solving real problems made me realise it was what i wanted to do!
      Writing is a big part of science, and even though it can be boring, the more you do it the more used to it you get, and it is extremely important for sharing your results with the wider scientific community that you actually do do some writing!

    • Photo: Fiona Scott

      Fiona Scott answered on 12 Mar 2019: last edited 12 Mar 2019 11:11 am

      At times it did, usually, when I was studying a particularly hard module or something I wasn’t particularly interested in. Chemistry degrees are certainly not all about writing. The university I was at had a higher than average amount of laboratory classes (4 afternoons a week and then between every lecture 9-6 in my final year). They also encouraged us to go and work in industry during the degree.

      Science has to involve writing because it’s really important to clearly communicate what you’ve carried out in the lab. There are new technologies that are making this easier to do like electronic lab books which help save chemists time when writing up experiments. Writing about science is about being clear and concise so it doesn’t have to involve writing huge essays some of the time.

      Organic chemistry also involves a lot of doodling! We draw reactions mechanisms with pictures of the molecules we’re making to help communicate what we are doing in the lab so if you’re good at drawing hexagons you’ll be a good organic chemist!

    • Photo: Jennifer Harris

      Jennifer Harris answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      University inspired me the most! Science degrees are often not very written based as you have to do practicals and experiments. Also the degree’s dissertation is more often than not a laboratory project. So I wouldn’t say it is extremely written based and would say, those studying a subject they love, will leave university loving that subject more!

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